Subject: [FFML] [shortfic][?] A Warm September Day
From: "Trakal" <Trakal@map.com>
Date: 3/20/1999, 11:44 AM
To: ffml@fanfic.com, trakal@map.com
Reply-to:
trakal@map.com

Disclaimer: This is a tale about an event which has already 
happened in one anime universe. I'll let you guess who is 
involved, though most of the fans of the particular series
will have no trouble guessing.

Note: All characters used are copyright of the production 
company who created the series in question.
=============================================================
A Warm September Day.
---------------------


Sitting on the back porch of her home, a young Japanese woman
took an all too short, but much needed break from her daily
chores. With the burden of the child within her, she had found
her daily routine more tiring than usual. Still, she did not
complain. Quite the opposite.

"My little one," she said, softly, to the swelling in her belly,
"I love you so much. I am a little afraid of what is to come.
But I am also glad of it. I am sure you shall be as handsome as
your father. I know I shall love you as I love him."

She got to her feet and walked back into the house. The rest of
her chores were all but finished. In truth, she had only a
modicum of sweeping to do. Finishing this in roughly five
minutes, she began making dinner.

Her husband would be home soon, she thought to herself. And her
father, whom they lived with, would be coming in from his daily
chores at the temple.

They didn't get many temple visitors these days, being as out of
the way as they were. That didn't discourage her father,
however. Every day he washed her mother's grave and watered the
flowers that grew around it. Sometimes she helped him by washing
the grave while he watered the flowers. But her present
condition made this difficult. So on the days she was able to
help, it was she who watered the plants while her father washed
the grave.

Those who did come to the temple, she reflected, did so to hear
her father's tales. He was quite a storyteller. A warm smile
came to her face as she imagined him sitting there with his
grandchild on his lap, telling one of his many tales. "What a
wonderful grandfather you have." She told the child inside her. 
"And you have a wonderful dad, too. Someday, he's going to build
us a house of our very own.

The September rain pattered upon the rooftop as she began to
take a sip of the broth, to test its flavor. A pain unlike any
she ever knew before overcame her. It was both terrible and
wonderful and the same time. She felt fear and joy all at once.
The spoon clattered to the floor and she heard footsteps running
to her. Someone caught her and brought her into her room.

"I must get to the hospital," she told her rescuer, vaguely,
"I'm having a baby."

"The ambulance will be here soon." Her father's voice replied.
She felt him undress her and she blushed a little in
embarrassment.

"Just trying to make you as comfortable as possible," he assured
her as he placed a blanket over her.  "Part your legs a little
and bend your knees, that'll help."

"Thank you, father." She replied, as still another pain hit. "Oh
kami-sama! I think its coming out!" She bent her legs as she'd
been instructed.

The woman's husband and the ambulance got to the end of the path
leading to the house and temple. The husband saw the ambulance
and quickly realized what was happening. He followed the
ambulance to the house. 

They arrived just in time to hear the first cry of the young
woman's newborn son.

Both mother and child were placed in the ambulance and driven to
the hospital, the father following behind in his own vehicle.

At the hospital, the doctors helped the new mother finish with
the delivery. When the afterbirth was expelled, they let the new
father cut the cord. Once that was done, the baby boy was
cleaned off.

After an overnight stay in the hospital, the baby was allowed to
go home. They decided it would be best for the mother to stay
for a week to give her a chance to rest and recouperate from her
ordeal.

After a week in the hospital, she returned home. There she was
reuinited with her father, husband and her baby boy.

The baby woke her at least a half dozen times that night.
Sometimes he wanted to be fed. At other times he needed his
diaper changed. And still other times he wanted to just be held.

"I'll never get any sleep." She sighed.

And as she rocked the baby in her arms and sang a sweet lullaby
to him, she realized that she wouldn't want it any other way.